Michael Stuart Brown

(1941 - )

Michael Stuart Brown was born on April 13, 1941, in
Brooklyn, New York.
In 1962, Brown graduated from the College of Arts and
Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1966,
Brown received his M.D. degree from the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine. For the next two years,
Brown was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine
at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

From 1968 to1971, Brown worked at the National Institutes
of Health where he served initially as Clinical Associate
in gastroenterology and hereditary disease. In 1971,
Brown joined the Gastroenterology unit in the Department
of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical School in Dallas. In 1974, he was promoted to
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He became a Professor
in 1976. In 1977 he was appointed Paul J. Thomas Professor
of Medicine and Genetics, and Director of the Center
for Genetic Disease at the same institution. In 1985,
Brown was appointed Regental Professor of the University
of Texas.

In 1985, he was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph
Goldstein for describing the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.

Honorary Societies

· National Academy of Sciences of the United
States (1980)
· American Academy of Arts and Sciences
· American Society for Clinical Investigation
· Association of American Physicians
· American Society of Biological Chemists
· American Society for Cell Biology

Awards

· Heinrich Wieland Prize for Research in Lipid
Metabolism (1974)
· Lounsbery Award of the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences (1979)
· New York Academy of Sciences Award in Biological
and Medical Sciences (1981)
· Distinguished Research Award of the Association
of American Medical Colleges (1984)
· Research Achievement Award of the American
Heart Association (1984)
· William Allan Award of the American Society
of Human Genetics (1985)

The following press release from the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences describes Brown's work:

Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein have through
their discoveries revolutionized our knowledge about
the regulation of cholesterol metabolism and the treatment
of diseases caused by abnormally elevated cholesterol
levels in the blood. They found that cells on their
surfaces have receptors which mediate the uptake of
the cholesterol-containing particles called low-density
lipoprotein (LDL) that circulate in the blood stream.
Brown and Goldstein have discovered that the underlying
mechanism to the severe hereditary familial hypercholesterolemia
is a complete, or partial, lack of functional LDL-receptors.
In normal individuals the uptake of dietary cholesterol
inhibits the cells own synthesis of cholesterol. As
a consequence the number of LDL-receptors on the cell
surface is reduced. This leads to increased levels of
cholesterol in the blood which subsequently may accumulate
in the wall of arteries causing atherosclerosis and
eventually a heart attack or a stroke. Brown and Goldstein's
discoveries have lead to new principles for treatment,
and prevention, of atherosclerosis.